Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a method for controlling the same, and a storage medium storing a program.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses display still images on a display panel of their operation unit in order to prompt a user to perform maintenance operations such as replacement of toner containers or fixing of paper jams. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-118881 describes an example in which, if the power is automatically turned off before fixing a jam that has occurred during image formation, proper indication of the jam is displayed when the power is turned on next time.
According to the technique in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-118881, jam code held before the power is turned off is used to display proper indication of a jam after the power is turned on again. Such a technique is applicable to replacement of toner containers and the like. Below, an example of replacement of toner containers will be described assuming a specific procedure for replacing toner containers. For example, a case will be assumed in which an image forming apparatus has C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black) toner containers, and the remaining amounts of C and M toners are lowered. For example, it is assumed that a user replaces only the C toner container, and performs another operation away from this image forming apparatus while leaving its front cover open. If this states continues for a long time, the image forming apparatus shifts to the sleep state, or is automatically turned off based on the time measured by a timer. It is assumed that, in this sleep state or power-off state, the user turns on the image forming apparatus, thereby starting the image forming apparatus.
At that time, since the front cover of the image forming apparatus is left open, the toner container replacement status in the image forming apparatus is not updated, and, thus, the image forming apparatus will continue to display indication that prompts to replace the C and M toner containers although the C toner container has been already replaced. It is usually expected that, when turning off the image forming apparatus, the user who has replaced the C and M toner containers closes the front cover and then turns off the image forming apparatus. However, if the power is turned off unintentionally by the user, as described above, the front cover may be left open, that is, the toner container replacement may be left uncompleted. In this case, unless the user closes the front cover so as to allow the toner container replacement status stored in the image forming apparatus to be updated, the image forming apparatus cannot display a proper operational procedure for the user.